Michigan Modern Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 1886 - 1969 Building Types: Commercial, Educational, Residential One of the world's most respected Modern architects, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born Ludwig Mies in the ancient city of Aachen, Germany, in 1886. (He added van der Rohe, his mother's maiden name, in 1921.) As a child attending Catholic school, Mies was taught the writings of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, which became a source of inspiration for his architectural philosophy later in life. The son of a master mason who owned a stone cutting shop, Mies was introduced to masonry at an early age and gained a strong knowledge of materials and their capabilities. After attending two years of trade school, he left at the age of fifteen to work as an apprentice to local architects in Aachen. With no formal architectural training, Mies moved to Berlin in 1905 and began working for architect Peter Behrens in 1908, during a period when industrial architecture flourished. Behrens became Mies' mentor and teacher, sharing with him a respect for detail and an appreciation for classical order.

During his time with Behrens' firm, the Dutch de Stijl (DaDa) art movement gained momentum and began to influence Mies' work. It wasn't until after World War I, when Mies started his own firm, that his design innovations received recognition. His work on the Weissenhofsiedlung housing project for the 1927 Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart was one of the first examples of his "less is more" philosophy. This project symbolized Mies' design aesthetic-steel beams and glass walls with no adornment- which became known as the "International style." It also introduced him to the international architectural community. Mies gained additional recognition for his design of the German Pavilion at the Barcelona International Exhibition in 1929, which featured his iconic chrome and leather Barcelona chairs and glass and chrome tables, designed specifically for the space. Mies was appointed the director of the Bauhaus in 1930 and served as such until it closed in 1933. In order to escape the growing hostility of the Nazi regime, Mies moved to the United States in 1937 and settled in Chicago.

There he was asked to become director of architecture at the Armour Institute, which became the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1940. Mies designed many buildings for the IIT campus including his masterwork, Crown Hall, which introduced the glass curtain wall to the American architectural vocabulary. In 1951 Mies completed one of his best known buildings, the glass Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois. While at IIT, Mies partnered with landscape architect Alfred Caldwell and planner Ludwig Hilberseimer on an urban renewal redevelopment project in Detroit, Michigan, called Lafayette Park. Today it is considered one of the few successful urban renewal projects of the twentieth century. Built between 1956 and 1963, and based on the "superblock" planning concept, the 193-acre residential complex contains the largest concentration of residential buildings designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the world.

Furniture by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe | Knoll Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s ‘less-is-more’ approach to design was the gold standard for many generations of modern architecture. His legendary career started humbly at his father’s stonemasonry business, giving him an early appreciation of material and structure. Knoll Ludwig Mies van der Rohe b. Germany1886-1969 Regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s ‘less-is-more’ approach to design was the gold standard for many generations of modern architecture. His legendary career started humbly at his father’s stonemasonry business, giving him an early appreciation of material and structure. From there he apprenticed with furniture designer Bruno Paul in Berlin before joining the office of Peter Behrens, an architect and painter at the forefront of the modern movement. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion, 1929. Image from the Knoll Archive. In 1912, Mies established his own office in Berlin.

Through furniture, residential projects and extraordinary, yet unrealized concepts for skyscrapers, he gained recognition as a leader of the German modern movement. As such, he was selected to design the German Pavilion at the Barcelona Industrial Exposition of 1929. His design, a rhythmic arrangement of horizontal and vertical planes of glass, stone and metal was an experiment in free flowing space. With no discernible distinction between rooms or inside and outside, the design fundamentally challenged the architectural ‘boxes within a box’ standard of the time. Inside, Mies included the Barcelona Chair and Ottoman, designed to offer the King and Queen of Spain to a place to rest (they in fact never sat down). The Barcelona Pavilion and the chairs it contained are universally recognized as milestones of modern design. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Collection in Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan. Image from the Knoll Archive. Mies served as Vice President of the Deutsher Werkbund and Director of the Bauhaus from 1930 until it closed in 1933. He immigrated to the United States in 1938 to become the director of architecture at the Armour Institute (later the Illinois Institute of Technology).

From his Chicago-based practice, Mies designed a portfolio of buildings that changed the face of American institutional architecture ― the most notable examples being the IIT campus and the Seagram Building in New York. While at IIT he befriended and mentored a young Florence Knoll. Florence has always credited Mies as her most influential instructor, and, in 1948, Mies granted Knoll exclusive rights to produce his furniture, including the Barcelona collection, the Brno chair, and MR series. The production of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Chair. Image from the Knoll Archive. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - Great Buildings Online Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Works Barcelona Pavilion , at Barcelona, Spain, built 1928-1929, demolished 1930. * 3D Model * Crown Hall , at Chicago, Illinois, 1950 to 1956. * 3D Model * Farnsworth House , at Plano, Illinois, 1946 to 1950.

* 3D Model * Lake Shore Drive Apartments , at Chicago, Illinois, 1948 to 1951. New National Gallery , at Berlin, Germany, 1962 to 1968. * 3D Model * Seagram Building , at New York, New York, 1954 to 1958. Tugendhat House , at Brno, Czech Republic, 1930. * 3D Model * Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (b. Aachen, Germany March 27, 1886; d. Chicago, Illinois 1969) Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe was born in Aachen, Germany in 1886. He worked in the family stone-carving business before he joined the office of Bruno Paul in Berlin. He entered the studio of Peter Behrens in 1908 and remained until 1912. Under Behrens' influence, Mies developed a design approach based on advanced structural techniques and Prussian Classicism. He also developed a sympathy for the aesthetic credos of both Russian Constructivism and the Dutch De Stijl group.

He borrowed from the post and lintel construction of Karl Friedrich Schinkel for his designs in steel and glass. Mies worked with the magazine G which started in July 1923. He made major contributions to the architectural philosophies of the late 1920s and 1930s as artistic director of the Werkbund-sponsored Weissenhof project and as Director of the Bauhaus . Famous for his dictum 'Less is More', Mies attempted to create contemplative, neutral spaces through an architecture based on material honesty and structural integrity. Over the last twenty years of his life, Mies achieved his vision of a monumental 'skin and bone' architecture. His later works provide a fitting denouement to a life dedicated to the idea of a universal, simplified architecture Mies died in Chicago, Illinois in 1969. References Dennis Sharp. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York: Quatro Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0-8230-2539-X. NA40.I45. p109.

Details Mies van der Rohe Society | Projects Mies van der Rohe Society Minerals and Metals Building Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA Formerly the Armour Research Foundation (ARF) Metals Building, the opening of what is now called the Minerals and Metals Building marked the first step toward the realization of Mies' master plan for the Illinois Institute of Technology's Main Campus. Not only was it the first building Mies designed for IIT, ... › View Project 1956 Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA S.R. Crown Hall is, by all accounts, a masterpiece. Since its completion over 50 years ago, Mies van der Rohe’s “home for ideas and adventures” has inspired students, architects, and admirers. The project to build a new home for the School of Architecture and Institute of Design came about more ... › View Project 1952 Robert F. Carr Memorial Chapel of St. Savior Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA “Too often we think about architecture in terms of the spectacular. There is nothing spectacular about this chapel; it was not meant to be spectacular. It was meant to be simple; and, in fact, it is simple.

But in its simplicity it is not primitive, but noble, and in its ... › View Project 1951 860-880 Lake Shore Apartments 860 - 880 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL, USA About the buildings. The materials are common: steel, aluminum, glass. Yet these buildings are renowned for their structural clarity and composition. Using steel straight from the mill, Mies built with the eye and intent of an artist, striking the perfect balance between rational structure and irrational spirit. The vertical windows ... › View Project 1946 Wishnick Hall Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA “We’ve got to expand our idea of what constitutes beauty from a technical point of view.” —Peter Land, IIT Professor of Architecture, in regard to the importance of restoring Wishnick Hall Wishnick Hall, originally called Chemistry Building, was Mies' fifth structure on the IIT campus. According to Franz Schulze, Mies' ...

› View Project 1958 Illinois Institute of Technology Master Plan Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA Mies arrived in Chicago in 1938 to become the Director of Architecture at the Armour Institute (now Illinois Institute of Technology) with the understanding that he would redevelop the curriculum. Soon after, he was awarded the commission to redesign the campus and its buildings, an unexpected opportunity to shape a ... › View Project 1970 One IBM Plaza 330 North Wabash Street , Chicago, IL, USA It’s hard to resist the sublime and symbolic liaison between the iconic 20th-century American corporation and the iconic modern architect. The resulting building—the structure formerly known as One IBM Plaza—has became synonymous with corporate power. In September 2013, the building will reflect the changing face of capitalism with a new ... › View Project 1951 Farnsworth House Plano, IL, USA It—two parallel planes held in suspension between the earth and sky by only eight steel columns—seems simple, but Mies worked through 167 drawings to come to his final, fearless design. Like Einstein’s equation, its simplicity exudes an elegance through a thorough attention to detail.

However, Mies did not create the ... › View Project 1965 School of Social Service Administration 969 East 60th St , University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA This low-rise, wholly symmetrical building sits on a raised plinth of travertine similar to Crown Hall. Built a decade after the completion of Crown, the Social Services Administration building merges many of the architectural solutions accomplished in both Crown and the Commons. However, the SSA is appreciably heavier, almost seeming ... › View Project 1946 Alumni Hall Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA Alumni Hall was Mies’ first academic building on the IIT campus. As such, it framed the architectural language that guided the majority of other academic buildings. To align with the campus grid, Mies established a modular bay 24’ long, 24’ wide, and 12’ tall, which proved ideal for flexibility and ... › View Project 1927 Weissenhofsiedlung Stuttgart, Germany Set on a hill overlooking Stuttgart, Germany, these twenty-one houses and apartment buildings comprise one of the most celebrated communal endeavors in the history of modern architecture.

The ultimate success of the Weissenhofsiedlung owes much to the artistic director, Mies van der Rohe, whose strategy was to invite a group ... › View Project 1907 Riehl House Potsdam, Germany The Riehl House was Mies' first building. He was twenty-one at the time and was working for Bruno Paul. Here, Mies reiterates much of Paul's classical German style with an austere stucco exterior and a pronounced roof that emphasizes the idea of shelter and home. The interior space pulled inspiration ... › View Project 1931 MR Chair Marcel Breuer, Mies' peer at the Bauhaus, constructed the first tubular chair in 1925. It became known as the "Wassily," for another Bauhaus member, Wassily Kandinsky, and marked a shift in modern furniture design. Soon after, Mies created the MR Chair. By reducing the chair to its main parts and ... › View Project 1929 Barcelona Chair Perhaps the most iconic work from Mies' oeuvre, the Barcelona Chair at once gives life to and is born from its materials.

Like the MR and Brno Chairs, it is composed of steel and leather. The steel bar legs ease up and over to support the seat and back of ... › View Project 1930 Tugendhat House Brno, Czech Republic The Tugendhat House occupies a graded site overlooking a broad valley, with a magnificent view of the city of Brno and the old Spielberg Castle. The house was designed as a large and luxurious villa for Grete and Fritz Tugendhat. This was the last major home Mies built in Europe. ... › View Project 1929 The Barcelona Pavilion Barcelona, Spain Mies built the German (or Barcelona) Pavilion for the Barcelona International Exposition of 1929. It housed the ceremonial reception space for German industrial exhibits commissioned by the German government. Mies united sophisticated materials with a fluid open plan, which together endowed the space with an unprecedented modern elegance. The architecture's ... › View Project 1968 Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Germany The National Gallery is located on a sloping site along the north bank of the Landwehr Canal in Berlin, Germany.

The second and final museum of Mies' career (the first being Houston's Museum of Fine Arts), the Gallery was his only commission from the government of West Germany. This provided ... › View Project 1932 Lemke House Berlin, Germany Unique to the Lemke House is its courtyard. No other house by Mies would feature this relation to green space. It's also the last house built by Mies in Germany, and he emigrated to the United States soon after. Like the Lange and Esters Houses, the Lemke House exists today ... › View Project 1930 Made of steel and leather, the Brno Chair expresses Mies' regard for simplicity. The chair is named after Brno, Czechoslovakia, where it debuted in the Tugendhat House. › View Project 1930 Lange and Esters Houses Krefeld, Germany These two houses sit side by side on the Wilhelmshofallee in the artistocratic quarter of Krefeld, Germany. They were commissioned at or about the same time by Josef Esters and Hermann Lange, two executives of the silk weaving mills, or the Vereingte Seidenweberein A-G, which make Krefeld famous.

Mies worked ... › View Project 1974 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Houston, Texas The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston is the first museum Mies ever built, and his only one in the U.S (his second and final being Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie). He was hired to design two additions to the Caroline Weiss Law Building. This existing structure was built by William Ward ... › View Project 1949 The Promontory Apartments Chicago, Illinois The Promontory Apartments mark Mies' foray into high-rise buildings. Notably, it was the first tall building to exhibit its construction materials. Concrete, beams, and columns were left in plain sight, winning the praise of critics. The design of the building gave the most units possible a view of Lake Michigan, ... › View Project 1958 The Seagram Building New York, New York This 39-story, 516-foot tall office building was commissioned by Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Corporation, purveyors of Seagram liquors. Noted for it's amber toned windows and public plaza, the Seagram is Mies' largest work.

The architect worked around New York City's zoning codes mandating that skyscrapers recess or "set back" ... › View Project 1972 Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library Washington, D.C. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library evokes the solemnity of public institutions. This is the only library and the only building in Washington D.C. designed by Mies. Inside, stacks of books echo the rows of fluorescent lights. Outside, the sheer mass of the structure is felt as it stretches ... › View Project 1965 Lafayette Park Detroit, Michigan Lafayette Park, just northeast of downtown Detroit, is a 78-acre housing development designed and realized by Mies van der Rohe. The first urban renewal project in the United States, it was founded by developer Herb Greenwald to help keep the middle class in the city. Alfred Caldwell, Mies’ longtime collaborator, ... › View Project 1969 Île-des-Soeurs Nuns' Island, Canada Located in Montreal, Quebec Île-des-Soeurs, or Nuns' Island, is home to three apartment buildings and an Esso gas station designed by Mies.

› View Project 1952 50 x 50 House One of Mies' most famous unbuilt projects, the 50 x 50 house was conceived as a solution to the problem of mass housing, a genre of architecture he had never paid serious attention to in the past. In 2009, the artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovallé constructed a half-scale version of the house ... › View Project 1964 Chicago Federal Center Chicago, Illinois This 42-story office building is located on Dearborn Street in the Chicago Loop. The project was commissioned by the General Services Administration of the US government as part of a plan initiated in the 1950s to update federal administrative and judiciary facilities nationwide. Begun in 1959, it was designed in ... › View Project 1969 Toronto-Dominion Center Toronto, Canada This urban planning project covers a 5.5 acre area in downtown Toronto, Ontario. Like the Chicago Federal Center, this complex is composed of two office towers along with a single one-story structure that houses the Toronto-Dominion Bank.

› View Project 1952 McCormick House Elmhurst, Illinois The McCormick House is one instance of Mies' "Steel Frame Row Houses." It is reported that its steel-framed walls were brought from the factory to the site only under special allowance by the police for the transport vehicles. In 1994, the house was moved several blocks from its original location ... › View Project 1956 Esplanade Apartment Buildings Chicago, Illinois Following the success of the 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Mies and Greenwald conceived five major project proposals for Chicago's North Side. Esplanade was one of them. The first buildings ever built with an uninterrupted aluminum and glass curtain wall, the Esplanade also features colonnades and a private sun deck. › View Project 1935 Verseidag Factory Krefeld, Germany Commissioned by Verseidag, the large silk-weaving company in Krefeld, Germany, this factory appears to set the precedent for Mies' work at IIT.

› View Project 1947 Perlstein Hall Chicago, Illinois In many ways, Perlstein is a culmination and amalgamation of many ideas Mies was developing on the IIT campus—in particular the expression of structure, modular organization, construction detailing. This building conforms to the structural bay of 24’ square and 12’ high, which provides an easy measure of comparison for building ... › View Project 1954 The Commons Chicago, Illinois The Commons was intended to be an "amenities center" for the IIT campus with a dining hall, grocery store, barbershop, and laundry. By that time, Mies was uninterested in designing a building for specific program needs, so he delegated the project to Gene Summers, a 23-year old architect who had ... › View Project 1965 Mellon Hall of Science Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania One of many academic buildings designed by Mies, this low-rise structure is located at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. › View Project 1930 Urbig House Potsdam, Germany Impressed by the work he did for the Riehls, the Urbig family commissioned a home from Mies in 1915.

Mies' first design called for a modern flat roof, but this was rejected. The new plan offered a more traditional hipped roof with five dormer windows. Such revisions were common, and ... › View Project 1956 Commonwealth Promenade Apartments Chicago, Illinois Mies worked with developer Herbert Greenwald on these two mid-rise apartment buildings after the success of their collaboration on 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments the year before. The original design and development plan accounted for four, but this was eventually scaled back. The project bears many similarities to the Esplanade ... › View Project 1927 Afrikanischestrasse Apartments Berlin, Germany With their highly geometric structure and restricted windows, the form of these apartments appears to affect their function. Such lenience to practicality would never be seen in Mies' work following this low-cost housing project. › View Project 1931 MR Lounge Chair Like the MR Chair, the MR Lounge Chair features tubular stainless steel and a cantilever frame. Mies began with the iron rocking chairs that were the standard in 19th century Europe. He then injected them with modern materials and a minimalist aesthetic. This was another instance in which the architect ...

› View Project 1963 2400 Lakeview Chicago, Illinois The 2400 Lakeview Apartments consist of a single building made of reinforced concrete, aluminum, and grey-tinted glass. As with all Mies' work, this building derives beauty not from ornamentation, but instead from the essentials of architecture: materials and construction. In the ground floor lobby the elevator core appears as a ... › View Project 1929 Tugendhat Chair Seeking to make a comfortable lounge chair that maintained the restraint of his minimalist aesthetic, Mies arrived at the Tugendhat. Here, the cushions of the Barcelona meet the cantilever frame of the MR, arriving at an elegant solution to the overstuffed club chair. › View Project 1921 Friedrichstrasse Office Building Although it was never built, Mies' design for the Friedrichstrasse Office Building remains one of the most important structures in 20th century architecture. For the Friedrichstrasse architecture competition, Mies ignored several rules dictated in the guidelines and presented a radical concept to the committee: a skyscraper made entirely of glass ...

› View Project 1962 American Federal Building Des Moines, Iowa This two story steel and glass structure was built by Mies in 1962. The American Federal Building, along with Meredith Hall at Drake University, are the only works designed by the architect in Des Moines, Iowa. › View Project 1929 The Barcelona Couch was first used in the New York apartment of Architect Phillip Johnson in 1930. Scholars cite Lilly Reich as a co-designer. Reich also designed the interiors for the Johnson project. › View Project 1886 On March 27th, 1886 Ludwig Mies was born in Aachen, Germany. He would later incorporate his mother's maiden name ("Rohe") into his own as he rose to prominence in the architectural community. 1905 Mies Moves to Berlin Leaving his home of Aachen, Germany on the advice of a fellow architect, 19 year old Mies moved to the city seeking great architecture and a place in a notable firm. His family remained forever in Aachen and ran their masonry business while Mies was making a name for himself in the cultural capital of the time.

1908 Mies joins the staff at Peter Behrens' atelier Bookbinder, visual artist, graphic designer and architect, Peter Behrens was as innovative as he was multi-talented. His first building - a home for himself, the contents of which he also designed- is a prime example of Gesamtkunstwerk. As a "total work of art" Haus Behrens utilized every artistic medium to create a complete aesthetic experience. Following success of his home he designed the AEG Turbine Factory, once again designing the structure as well as its contents. He was one of the first designers to embrace industrialization as a way to provide well designed, useful objects to the masses. In 1907 he founded his own architecture firm in Berlin which included three architects who would later write the history of modern architecture: Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. 1926 Mies and Le Corbusier meet in Stuttgart, Germany At different points in time both Mies and Le Corbusier worked at Peter Behrens' atelier.

Nearly two decades after their training with Behrens the two had their first meeting at the Weissenhofsiedlung, which featured houses by both architects and the artistic directorship of Mies. 1930 Mies assumes directorship of the Bauhaus Following the resignation of Hannes Meyer who had taken over for Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe became the director of the Bauhaus. Though he had turned down the position when Gropius left he accepted it the second time around, sensing that the school needed a greater emphasis on form and function rather than politics. Such lenience to beauty won him the animosity of the radical members of the student body. Mies focused the curriculum on architecture and interior design with greater intensity such that all other subjects, like fine arts, fell by the wayside. When the Bauhaus closed in 1932 Mies promptly revived it, if only for a few months, as his own school. 1938 Mies left Germany in 1938 to head the Armour Institute, which later became the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Many members of the Bauhaus, including Joseph Albers, Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy, also moved to the United States at this time. 1932 The Bauhaus closes After 15 years of operation the Bauhaus is shut down by the Nazi regime. The modern aesthetic and "un-German" flavor of the school did not suit the nationalistic, neoclassical taste of German leaders. Many of the artists involved with the Bauhaus were exhibited in the Entartete Kunst exhibition, curated by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. The show hoped to ridicule the featured styles and artists, including Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. 1969 Mies dies in Chicago, Illinois In the summer of 1969 Mies was rushed to Wesley Memorial Hospital where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. Two weeks later the combined force this pneumonia and cancer of the esophagus, which Mies had been living with for three years, overcame the architect. On August 19th, at the age of 83, Mies died.

1932 The Modern Architecture-International Exhibition opens at the Museum of Modern Art It was at this exhibition that the term "International Style" was born. Rather than emphasizing the social, art historical and technological aspects of architecture the curators, Philip Johnson (who later collaborated with Mies on the Seagram Building) and Henry-Russel Hitchcock, emphasized pure appearance. The exhibition was critiqued by architects and writers for clumping everyone from Frank Lloyd Wright to Walter Gropius under the same genre and overlooking crucial differences, and even crucial similarities, for the sake of categorization. The show ultimately proved to be an important moment in architecture's history, if only because of this controversy. 1958 Mies retires from IIT As his commissions increased Mies had less and less time to run the architecture program at Illinois Institute of Technology. At the age of 72, Mies left IIT and began focusing on his own projects. Skidmore, Owings and Merril took over the on-campus projects he did not complete.

1937 Mies van der Rohe Society | Legacy | Mies: The Man, The Legacy Mies van der Rohe Society Legacy Mies: The Man, The Legacy Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), a German-born architect and educator, is widely acknowledged as one of the 20th century's greatest architects. By emphasizing open space and revealing the industrial materials used in construction, he helped define modern architecture. Born in Aachen, Germany, Mies spent the first half of his career in his native country. His early work was mainly residential, and he received his first independent commission, the Riehl House , when he was only 20 years old. Mies quickly became a leading figure in the avant-garde life of Berlin and was widely respected in Europe for his innovative structures, including the Barcelona Pavilion . In 1930, he was named director of the Bauhaus, the renowned German school of experimental art and design, which he led until 1933 when he closed the school under pressure from the Nazi Regime.

Armour Institute, one of IIT's predecessor institutions, was founded in 1890 just as Chicago was emerging as a center for progressive architectural thought. Men like Burnham and Root, Sullivan and Adler, and William Le Baron Jenney were transforming the practice and developing an architectural vocabulary that emphasized structure and function over ornamentation. This generation of architects founded what became known as the first Chicago School of architecture. Mies van der Rohe founded the next. In 1936, when Earl Reed resigned as director of the Department of Architecture at Armour Institute, the school engaged Chicago's architectural leaders in the search for a new director. The search committee, headed by John Holabird, recruited Mies. Mies' first task was to "rationalize" the architecture curriculum. When Mies arrived in 1938, he insisted on a back-to-basics approach to education: Architecture students must first learn to draw, then gain thorough knowledge of the features and use of the builder's materials, and finally master the fundamental principles of design and construction. During these early years, Mies held classes in space provided by the Art Institute of Chicago. Mies' second task was to expand the south side campus.

In 1940, Armour Institute and Lewis Institute merged to form Illinois Institute of Technology. Armour Insitute's original seven acres could not accommodate the combined schools' needs, and Mies was encouraged to develop plans for a newly expanded 120-acre campus. Not since Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia (1819) had an American campus been the work of a single architect. Mies' original proposal called for a more traditional layout of several large buildings grouped around an open space but in his final Master Plan he embraced Chicago's rectilinear street grid and designed two symmetrically balanced groups of buildings. Mies' academic buildings stood in sharp contrast to the patrician campuses of the past. They embodied 20th century methods and materials: steel and concrete frames with curtain walls of brick and glass. The sleek urbanism of IIT's campus was a reflection of the university's technological focus. The Master Plan created an oasis of calm that emulated the openness of the Midwestern prairie in the midst of the chaotic surrounding city. Mies' buildings are both magisterial and harmonious, and they set a new aesthetic standard for modern architecture.

Indeed, Mies' designs have so pervaded our definition of architecture that it is difficult to imagine how revolutionary the campus was when it was first built. Mies went on to design some of the nation's most recognizable skyscrapers, including the Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago and the Seagram Building in New York City. Whether or not you agree with Mies' assertation that less is more, his contribution to the modern urban landscape cannot be overlooked. Mies' architecture has been described as being expressive of the industrial age in the same way that Gothic was expressive of the age of ecclesiasticism. In 1956, famed architect Eero Saarinen spoke at the dedication of Mies' masterwork, S.R. Crown Hall , and lauded him as Chicago's third great artist, placing Mies in the prestigious lineage of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. "Great architecture is both universal and individual," Saarinen said at the dedication, "The universality comes because there is an architecture expressive of its time.

But the individuality comes as the expression of one man's unique combination of faith and honesty and devotion and belief in architecture." After 20 years as the director of architecture at IIT, Mies resigned in 1958 at the age of 72. In 1959, the Royal Institute of British Architects awarded Mies its Gold Medal and the following year he received the AIA Gold Medal, the highest award given by the American Association of Architects. President Lyndon Johnson presented Mies with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. It was in 1966 when Mies began suffering from cancer of the esophagus. He died three years later in his adoptive hometown, Chicago. Family surrounded him at his deathbed and, at a memorial service in Crown Hall, the general public stood alongside the leading names in architecture to mourn the architect. Our built environment is meant to be lived in. Mies' buildings, beyond merely affecting our lives, endow them with greater significance and beauty. His buildings radiate the confidence, rationality, and elegance of their creator and, free of ornamentation and excess, confess the essential elements of our lives.

In our time, where there is no limit to excess, Mies' reductionist approach is as pertinent as ever. As we reduce the distractions and focus on the essential elements of our environment and ourselves, we find they are great, intricate, and beautiful. Less is more. Explore the Legacy Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - Design Within Reach Design Within Reach Sign up for our emails and a chance to win this ingenious stackable stool. Email Address* Ludwig Mies van der Rohe GERMANY (1886–1969) The modern city, with its towers of glass and steel, can be at least in part attributed to the influence of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Equally significant, if smaller in scale, is Mies’ daring design of furniture, pieces that exhibit an unerring sense of proportion as well as minimalist forms and exquisitely refined details. In fact, his chairs have been called architecture in miniature – exercises in structure and materials that achieve an extraordinary visual harmony as autonomous pieces and in relation to the interiors for which they were designed.

Mies van der Rohe began his career in architecture in Berlin, working first in the studio of Bruno Paul and then, like Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, for Peter Behrens. In 1927, a housing project called Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart, Germany, would bring these names together again. Widely believed to be one of the most notable projects in the history of modern architecture, it includes buildings by Gropius, Corbu, Behrens, Mies and others. In 1928, Mies and his companion and colleague, designer and Bauhaus alumna Lilly Reich, were asked to design the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona. The purpose of the Pavilion was to provide a location that could be visited by the king and queen of Spain during the opening of the Exposition. With that in mind, Mies designed a modern throne – known today as the Barcelona® Chair – for their majesties. In the following year, Mies designed another notable chair, the Brno, with a gravity-defying cantilevered base.

In 1930, Mies succeeded Walter Gropius as the director of the Bauhaus, where he stayed until the school closed in 1933. In 1937, Mies emigrated from Europe to the United States, and a year later became the director of architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The rest of his career was devoted to promoting the modernist style of architecture in the United States, resulting in rigorously modern buildings such as the Farnsworth House and the Seagram Building, designed with Philip Johnson. Artist photo from 1000 Chairs courtesy of Taschen. Explore All Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Designs Items / Page The pavilion - Fundació Mies van der Rohe The Pavilion Mies van der Rohe Foundation The Barcelona Pavilion was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as the German National Pavilion for the Barcelona International Exhibition, held on Montjuïc. The Barcelona Pavilion, an emblematic work of the Modern Movement, has been exhaustively studied and interpreted as well as having inspired the oeuvre of several generations of architects.

It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) as the German national pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. Built from glass, steel and different kinds of marble, the Pavilion was conceived to accommodate the official reception presided over by King Alfonso XIII of Spain along with the German authorities. After the closure of the Exhibition, the Pavilion was disassembled in 1930. As time went by, it became a key point of reference not only in Mies van der Rohe’s own career but also in twentieth-century architecture as a whole. Given the significance and reputation of the Pavilion, thoughts turned towards its possible reconstruction. In 1980 Oriol Bohigas, as head of the Urban Planning Department at the Barcelona City Council, set the project in motion, designating architects Ignasi de Solà-Morales, Cristian Cirici and Fernando Ramos to research, design and supervise the reconstruction of the Pavilion. Work began in 1983 and the new building was opened on its original site in 1986.

The materials Glass, steel and four different kinds of stone (Roman travertine, green Alpine marble, ancient green marble from Greece and golden onyx from the Atlas Mountains) were used for the reconstruction, all of the same characteristics and provenance as the ones originally employed by Mies in 1929. Mies van der Rohe’s originality in the use of materials lay not so much in novelty as in the ideal of modernity they expressed through the rigour of their geometry, the precision of the pieces and the clarity of their assembly. The Barcelona chair Mies van der Rohe designed a chair, especially for the Pavilion, consisting of a leatherupholstered metallic profile that over the years has become an icon of modern design. To such an extent, in fact, that the Barcelona chair is still manufactured and marketed today. Georg Kolbe’s sculpture The sculpture is a bronze reproduction of the piece entitled Dawn by Georg Kolbe, a contemporary of Mies van der Rohe. Masterfully placed at one end of the small pond, the sculpture is reflected not only in the water but also in the marble and glass, thereby creating the sensation that it is multiplied in space, while its curves contrast with the geometrical purity of the building.

Drawings of the Barcelona Pavilion

Question: What was the profession of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe?
Answer: ARCHITECT